A proximity service (ProSe) denotes a method of supporting communication between physically-close devices. In detail, ProSe aims to discover an application operating in adjacent devices and eventually to support an operation of exchanging application-related data. For example, it may be considered to apply ProSe to a social network service (SNS), business, and applications, such as games.
ProSe may also be called device-to-device (D2D) communication. In other words, ProSe means a communication method of setting a direct link between a plurality of devices (for example, user equipment (UE)) and directly transmitting and receiving user data (e.g., voices and multimedia data) between the devices, rather than via a network. ProSe communication may include UE-to-UE communication, peer-to-peer communication, and the like. ProSe may be applied to machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, machine type communication (MTC), etc. Accordingly, ProSe is considered a way to resolve a burden on a base station due to rapidly-increasing data traffic. Moreover, introduction of ProSe may produce effects, such as a procedural simplification of a base station, a power consumption decrease of devices that participate in ProSe, a data transmission speed increase, a capacity increase of a network, load balancing, and cell coverage expansion.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.